Bluey embodies the talent, heart and character of Australia’s creative industries. But unfortunately, until now, the beloved franchise’s video games had a track record spottier than her friend Chloe the dalmatian.
Some parents treated Budge Studios’ 2023 mobile game Bluey: Let’s Play! with caution, with its $9.99 monthly subscription and persistent adverts for Budge’s other licensed games. Later that same year, Artax Games’ Bluey: The Videogame was widely criticised on release for its barely two-hour run time, technical problems and $60 price tag. In his review, Australian game critic Luke Plunkett called it: “a slapdash cash grab that does the bare minimum.”
And released in August this year, StoryToys’s mobile game Lego Bluey offers block-building, minigames and another subscription – this one cheaper and less aggressively advertised. All three games were commissioned by BBC Studios, which co-commissions the show with ABC and handles all of Bluey’s international merchandising and licensing.
But Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen is the first to live up to the standards that made Bluey one of the most-watched shows in the world. Also commissioned by BBC Studios, it was made in Brisbane by Bluey creator Joe Brumm and Halfbrick Studios of Fruit Ninja fame, making it the first Bluey game made in Australia, the first to involve Bluey’s creator, and the last original Bluey story we’re likely to get from Brumm until the 2027 movie.
After playing the opening levels of Halfbrick’s take on Bluey, I can say it feels like an actual game; the studio has said it should take about 10 hours to complete, which feels accurate. It is essentially a classic adventure game in which Bluey and Bingo chase their impish dad Bandit through a series of magical artworks after he pinches their pen. The game’s design rewards curiosity, exploration and the liberal use of Bluey’s magic wand. Meanwhile, Brumm’s script gets Chilli and Bandit debating how to avoid lawnmower parenting while they concoct the game’s next level.
Halfbrick Studio’s CEO, Shainiel Deo, was always a strong contender to win Bluey’s video game rights. Hundreds of millions around the world have played Halfbrick games, and he and Brumm have been friends since they worked on the game for Brumm’s Dan the Man series in 2016.
When Brumm suggested Deo should pitch BBC Studios, other Bluey games were already under way. “It definitely should have gone to an Australian developer first,” says Deo; still, he understands why the BBC went with developers they had worked with before.
From the start, doing Bluey proud was Halfbrick’s primary concern. “This game will be ready when it’s ready,” Deo remembers telling BBC decision makers. “We took on all the risks in terms of funding it, that was on our coin, but I wanted to make a great experience.”
Deo insisted on an uncertain timeline to allow for exploration and prototyping. Despite footing the bill for delays, Deo feels the process worked thanks to a team driven by passion for their homegrown hero Bluey, and a deep connection to the Heelers’ contemporary Brisbane lifestyle. “They take a lot of pride in being the first Australian team to work on a Bluey game,” he says.
It is another win for the Australian games industry after Adelaide-made Hollow Knight: Silksong’s immense popularity crashed global storefronts in September. Aussie developers, still suffering layoffs, have deserved better when it comes to landing their biggest homegrown licences. To date, no Australian developer has released a Mad Max game; even a frankly inexplicable Neighbours racing game was made in the UK.
Fellow Australian developer Jason Imms says while the BBC owed nothing to Australia, taking advantage of the local talent that birthed Bluey was “a no-brainer”.
Imms, the head of quality assurance at Keywords Studios, says he’s pleased a respected Queensland developer like Halfbrick got a go. “We have so few homegrown franchises, and we have so few opportunities to play with Australian IP in games. Bluey is such a special thing, with such broad reach. It speaks to an Australiana that other Australian media really hasn’t been able to deliver to the rest of the world.”
Joey Egger, head of games at Screen Australia, which co-funds Bluey the show but not the games, is delighted Halfbrick got to showcase Bluey’s “unique Australian-ness”. “It’s so daggy. It’s got all the nuances; it’s very Brisbane,” says Egger of the show. “It’s something you can only truly replicate and extend into the games world if you really understand those nuances.”
Working on beloved homegrown franchises is an “immense source of pride” for developers, says Egger, who previously produced Wiggles games. “Today’s youth don’t think just TV, just movies, just games,” she adds. “They find an IP that they love and adore, and they will consume it on any platform.”
The quality of a Bluey game isn’t just a matter of national pride. Children can be treated as easily fooled customers who will play anything or as gullible marks for manipulative, lucrative business models.
Halfbrick Studios has made both “freemium” games (free with ads, with a one-time payment for an ad-free version) and subscription games. Neither model seemed appropriate for Bluey’s young audiences, so Deo returned to the one-time-purchase “premium” model the studio used in the 2000s, before mobile games exploded. “We don’t want to put people on a treadmill where they have to keep grinding to get stuff or pay,” he says. “Ethics is important for me.”
Imms, who says his kids quickly tired of Bluey: The Videogame, feels developers owe kids more, not less, than adult gamers. “Do kids deserve better? Of course they do. You could argue they need it more than we do because they’re still growing; they’re still shaping their understanding of the world. Stories that teach them about kindness and care, love and hardship – all those good things that Bluey teaches – are going to be beneficial for them.”
-
Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen is out now on iOS, Android on 10 January 2026, and PC and consoles later in 2026.
